This issue is all about what's going on in the world of TikTok over the last week. Quite a week it was with the Super Bowl taking place on Sunday, the first one with TikTok really being a predominant player in the advertising ecosystem. We didn’t see a commercial from TikTok which was a bit surprising but they did sponsor the pregame kick-off show with Miley Cyrus.
Before we dive into the juiciest TikTok news of the week, I wanted to share a quick snapshot of the Top 10 TikTok accounts in the US:
Charli D’Amelio - 108m (⬆ 5% from last month)
Addison Rae - 76m (⬆ 7%)
Zach King - 56m (⬆ 6%)
Bella Poarch - 55m (⬆ 21%)
Spencer X - 51m (⬆ 3%)
Loren Gray - 51m (⬆ 2%)
Dixie D’Amelio - 48m (⬆ 6%)
Will Smith - 47m (⬆ 8%)
Michael Le - 44m (⬆ 4%)
Riyaz - 43m (⬆ 1%)
Bella Poarch continues to soar up the charts adding nearly 14m followers in 2021 alone. Michael Le aka @justmaiko is new to the list this month and Will Smith is still the only ‘traditional’ celebrity in the Top 10.
Josh Richards Invests in Breakr
Josh continues his investment spree into the Creator Economy by participating in the seed round of Breakr, a new app linking musicians with influencers (mainly on TikTok) to promote new music. This marks Josh’s 3rd TikTok related investment (TalentX, Sway House) and 6th overall in the last year. Breakr claims to have acquired 18,000 users already, roughly 70% of whom are artists - the majority independent - while the other 30% are influencers.
This will be an interesting story to follow as TikTok has already shown to be a major driver of music popularity with Olivia Rodrigo’s Drivers License and Jason Derulo’s Savage Love to name a couple.
Chrissy Teigen Joins TikTok
The tv and social media star joined the platform this morning as @chrissy.teigen (2/11/21) and started posting a number of videos right away. It only took a few hours for her to amass over 50,000 followers and 100,000+ likes.
TikTok Sale to Oracle/Walmart on Hold
In major news, the partial sale of TikTok to Oracle and Walmart was delayed indefinitely this week as President Biden reviews the app’s national security risks. This is good news as the sale itself seemed forced and personally drive by former President Trump. Hopefully, President Biden and this office take the necessary time to fully access the platform and determine if actual security risks exist.
TikTok Launches QVC 2.0
The platform is prepping one of its biggest new features to date as it looks to launch live shopping experiences. This would be a live-streamed feature most likely hosted by celebrities/influencers similar to the QVC channel found on traditional TV. Users can purchase products with a few taps instead of being redirected outside the app.
This is a feature that has massive potential for any DTC (direct to consumer) or e-commerce companies looking for new channels to generate sales. Instagram has been teasing its integrated shopping feature for what feels like years but hasn’t fully released it. TikTok is looking to capitalize on that and take the lead over Instagram in the e-commerce space.
TikTok tested the new live-streaming shopping feature back in December with Walmart.